MADISON — The Wisconsin
Supreme Court will take up a series of legal disputes that
could have far-reaching implications for state regulators'
power to protect public waters from pollution and overuse.

A state appeals court panel
asked the high court Wednesday to settle 10 lawsuits over
natural resources, which have been consolidated into two
cases, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. The high
court's rulings will determine the balance of power between
lawmakers and state regulators.

The cases stem from
conservationists wanting to preserve the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources' authority to protect public
water rights and enforce clean water standards. But business
groups are pushing to keep power in the hands of elected
politicians who can be held accountable if the state goes
too far and harms profits.

"Both of these cases
require the court to decide whether water will be protected
for public benefit, or instead overused or polluted for the
private gain for a handful of corporate farms," said
attorney Evan Feinauer of Clean Wisconsin, a Madison
environmental nonprofit that's a plaintiff in the lawsuits.

One of the cases that the
Supreme Court will review challenges the DNR's decision to
allow a dairy farm to expand a feedlot in Kewaunee County,
an area with manure-contaminated drinking water. Another
group of lawsuits objects to the agency approving permits
for farms to make large-scale withdrawals of groundwater.
The well permits were in areas where the department had
determined new wells would put drinking water at risk and
exacerbate a problem of lakes and streams drying up.

Parts of the state have seen
drinking water become contaminated by farm runoff, or lakes
and streams dry up from nearby farmers pumping from
groundwater. Agricultural runoff of manure and fertilizer
into public waters also can lead to unnatural growths of
weeds and bacteria that can close beaches and harm fish.